It might sound like heresy to be looking at emerging market exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from the long side right now. After all, emerging markets have been some of the hardest-hit during the past… Read More

We watched the market implode last week. Some were scared, some were exhilarated. Some could only watch. When the market closed flat Friday after a tough Thursday, in which more than a trillion dollars of investor wealth was wiped away, I think pretty much everyone was pretty… Read More

Investing in stocks in 2011? Sadly, that’s not where the action has been. For the most part, the biggest gains for the year have been reaped in precious metals, energy and agriculture. Plain old equities are on track for forgettable year after posting stunning gains in the prior two years. Read More

Many investors are aware of the changes currently sweeping through the Middle East. Regimes in many countries have been toppled or are under extreme political pressure. Change, though not political, is also swirling through the world’s largest producer of oil, Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is central to… Read More

The rally in gold prices over the past 10 years has been nothing less than amazing, with the precious metal running from $300 per ounce in mid-2001 to more than $1500 now. The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD)… Read More

It’s never prudent to cause undue alarm. This is why European policy makers continue to speak of tactics and strategies to help Greece avoid any economic meltdown that would lead to bond defaults and a departure from the euro. To speak publicly of these… Read More

Do you remember the old commercials for brokerage firm E.F. Hutton back in the 1970s and early 1980s? They always ended with the announcer saying, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” In every advertisement, a pair of affluent-looking friends or co-workers would be discussing investments in some… Read More

If the past decade was one for the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), then is this the decade of the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa)? That was a notion I explored last summer in this article. Now, it’s time to take a… Read More

Let’s be frank, right now isn’t an easy time to buy stocks. And I wouldn’t tell you otherwise. According to the U.S. Debt Clock (view the debt clock online here), one of the most widely cited tools to measure our nation’s ballooning… Read More

Gold, gold, gold… it seems everyone wants to talk about gold, and for good reason. Since 1999, the price of an ounce of gold is up more than 600%, from about $250 to more than $1,500. Many investors, me included, wish we’d have purchased more gold at lower prices back… Read More